Lady Scotland's former housekeeper has yet to decide whether or not to disclose details of her employment, the publicist Max Clifford said today.

Clifford has been holding talks with Loloahi Tapui and the Serbian-born solicitor Alexander Zivancevic, the 40-year-old she claims is her husband.

"Everyone wants to know if they're going to go public, but they haven't made up their minds," Clifford said.

"They've made it very clear lots of things have been said that aren't true. We just have to wait and see what they decide."

He said the pair had approached him for "advice and guidance" after unflattering media reports about their marriage.

They were arrested by UK Border Agency officers in Chiswick, west London, on Wednesday.

A Metropolitan police spokesman said they had been questioned over alleged immigration offences and released on bail until October.

"The whole thing has been very upsetting for Lolo and for Alex," Clifford said. "There have been some pretty dreadful things written about their relationship."

He said he did not know details of how 27-year-old Tapui came to be working for the attorney general when she had no legal right to do so, adding: "There are only three people that do know – Baroness Scotland and Lolo and Alex."

When asked whether Tapui, who is from Tonga, had been in contact with her former employer since the scandal broke, Clifford said: "I don't know.

"What I do know is that she speaks very highly of Baroness Scotland and seems to be very fond of her."

Earlier this week, Scotland was fined £5,000 for employing a housekeeper with no right to work in the UK.

She has held on to her job despite the protest resignation of parliamentary private secretary, Stephen Hesford, the MP for Wirral West.

Gordon Brown offered her his strong support, saying she had acted "in good faith".

He said: "She has paid the fine and apologised unreservedly. I have told her of my feelings about what has happened, but I have got to ask if someone should lose their job for failure to keep a copy of documentation."

The UK Border Agency launched an investigation after it emerged that Tapui had overstayed her student visa by several years. Scotland was fined for not keeping copies of her documents.

Chris Grayling, the shadow home secretary, said the investigation should be reopened if Tapui produced evidence to challenge the peer's claim to have made thorough checks.

"I have always said that, for this investigation to be credible, it has to be handled in exactly the same way as it would be for any other employer," he told the Daily Mail.

"It does seem to me that there is a big question mark about how the Home Office can have concluded matters without having spoken to the housekeeper herself.

"Now that she has been arrested, she has to be questioned about all relevant matters, including exactly which documents she provided for Baroness Scotland."

The incident was particularly embarrassing because, as a Home Office minister, Scotland had helped guide immigration law through parliament.

She inflamed the row by comparing her error with forgetting to pay the congestion charge in London.